The Path from Darkness to Fire
by Silent-Fire
Summary: After dealing with Tom Riddle in her first year, Ginerva Weasley realized that she needed to learn how to protect herself.
1. A Resolution

A Note to the Reader: This is the first piece of fanfiction I've ever written, although I have been reading fanfiction for several years now. I'm writing this because I finally came up with something which feels like an original, interesting idea that I'd like to explore, although you will see several ideas from other authors.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters used in this story; they belong to J.K. Rowling and whomever she has chosen to assign those rights to.

Summary: After dealing with Tom Riddle in her first year, Ginerva Weasley realized that she needed to learn how to protect herself.

This story will provide snapshots of Ginerva's life from the end of The Chamber of Secrets until the end of The Half-Blood Prince. After that, it will continue in a sequel, tentatively titled _Burning in the Dark_. I have an outline of the plot for both of these, and will post chapters as I write them. While I will attempt to stay true to the canon as much as possible, some facts from canon will be altered for the sake of the storyline.

* * *

_The Path from Darkness to Fire_

Chapter 1: A Resolution

* * *

It had been four weeks since she woke up in the hospital wing. The last thing she remembered was drinking the Dreamless Sleep potion Madame Pomfrey had handed her, while her mum scolded her for not telling anyone when the diary appeared in her book. Ginerva could still hear her mother going on.

"I thought that we'd raised you better than that, Ginny! What were you thinking, taking something from a stranger! And not even telling us when you found it!"

Her mother had started ranting as soon as they left Professor McGonagall's office, and hadn't stopped until the potion had finally taken hold.

Now she was stuck at home, staring out her window at the boys playing Quidditch. She'd only been home for a little over a week, and she was already counting the days until school started up again. At least the professors let her go outside by herself, and didn't feel the need to check up on her at least once an hour. Sure, Ron would be doing his best to supervise her, but she could always avoid him. Fred and George were generally busy with some prank, and Percy could be distracted when you told him you saw a student slipping into a broom closet.

Until then, she was stuck at home with a mother who refused to let her out of the house, and would fret if Ginny was late getting down to breakfast in the morning. Every time she spoke, she could see them analyzing it to death, in case there might be lingering traces from Tom.

Before she could think about Tom any further, her mother opened the door and stuck her head in.

"What are you up to, dear?" Molly asked.

"Just thinking, Mum." Ginny replied.

"Why don't you get up and do something? You've been staring out that window for hours now. I'm sure you've got an essays to write, and if you've finished those you could come help me with the laundry."

Anything was better than the laundry; Fred and George had managed to develop a new potion which made anything with green dye smell like rotten cabbage, while anything red smelled like sage.

"I've still got some work to do on my Herbology essay, Mum. Do you know which phase of the moon it's best to harvest fluxweed during?"

"No, dear. Why don't you try looking in some of your brother's old books? They're all on the bookcase up in the attic."

"Yes, Mum."

With that, Ginny got up from her bed, and trudged up the two flights of stairs into the attic. Fortunately, it was a sunny day, so the ghoul was probably hiding behind a pile of boxes in the back corner. The bookcase was just to the right of the stairs, and it had several generations of Hogwarts books stored on it. Her mother saved all of them, in case the same book was assigned for two of her children.

She headed for the shelf at about the height of Ron's arms. When Molly had badgered him into unpacking his trunk, she'd heard him run up the stairs to get rid of his books, hoping that he'd never need to look at them again. Ginny's copy of One Thousand and One Magical Herbs and Fungi had ink from a previous owner soaking a couple of pages, including the section on fluxweed. While Ron didn't exactly take care of his books, the entry on fluxweed was probably still legible in his copy.

The book was right where she'd expected it to be, sitting on top of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 and last year's defense textbook. The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection certainly sounded more useful than Lockheart's books had been. Perhaps it even had a section on how to keep nasty things out of your head, or how to fend off concerned parents after they left.

Ginny pulled it out of the pile, and opened it to the first page.

_ There are many things in the world which are considered dark. The best way to defend yourself against them is to be able to recognize and avoid them. Lacking that, you should try more specific approaches; this book . . ._


	2. Following Through

A Note to the Reader: Another chapter, brought to you by the evil plot bug which has decided that I don't need to pass my classes this semester. Updates will not always be this frequent, but I do have the story planned out, and intend to write the entire thing. Worst case, I finish it up in June after the semester ends.

* * *

_The Path from Darkness to Fire_

Chapter 2: Following Through

* * *

Ginny had finished her essays by the end of the week. Three more weeks had passed, and she was partway through the sixteenth chapter in The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection. When she went to put Ron's copy of the Herbology text away, she'd picked up A Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2. Some of the spells in that might be useful for self-defense. She'd also been revisiting material from the other classes; The Dark Forces frequently referred to magical creatures, potions, and spells which the other books discussed in more depth.

Chapter sixteen was starting to discuss material she hadn't seen in her other classes. The section on recognizing objects which had been transfigured was incredibly confusing until she read ahead in the Transfiguration textbook, and they certainly hadn't discussed the charm to detect them yet in Charms. The discussion on potions ingredients commonly used in Dark potions had also been interesting; the author had pointed out that several of the common mind control potions could be negated by drinking an elixir of moonflower and goldenrod.

Molly had finally stopped worrying about Ginny as soon as she left her sight, and Ginny was allowed to sit out on the porch reading as long as her brothers were out playing Quidditch, or de-gnoming the yard. With any luck, after the trip to Egypt she would even be allowed to sit out in the yard instead of staying on the porch.

"Ginny! It's almost dinnertime! Come inside and set the table!"

"Coming, Mum."

Ginny marked her place in The Dark Forces, and got up to head inside. After dinner, she'd be able to finish the chapter, and she wanted to read more about countering mind control potions. Magical Drafts and Potions didn't cover the Dark ones which The Dark Forces discussed, but it looked like some of the potions in second year would influence a person's behavior.

A little over two weeks later

In Egypt, Ginny finally got to spend more time outdoors. Her mother insisted on applying spells to protect her from sunburns at least three times a day, but it was nice to walk around. Of course, she would have been able to see more of Egypt if her brothers had stopped surrounding her whenever they went anywhere interesting. They seemed to have decided that the best way to protect her was to keep her physically surrounded at all times.

Her mother insisted on holding her hand as if she was three, and Ron did his best to take her other hand. Percy hovered, trying to take her hand if Ron ever let go. Fred and George found this vastly amusing, and would stand in front of her and behind her. Her father just trailed along unless they were in a Muggle area, when he would watch all the tourists, and try to figure out their cameras. Bill was normally at the head of the group, pointing out interesting sites.

Today, they were spending a couple of hours in the bazaar at Abydos, on their way from Cairo to the Valley of the Kings and Thebes. Arthur was off in the Muggle section, examining a red toy which showed pictures of the temples. Fred and George had abandoned them at the sight of Ishaq's Toys and Treasures. Percy was examining a table of old books, while Bill was bargaining with the owner of the books for a grey book with some sort of green mold growing on the binding. Ron was two booths down, admiring the posters of Egypt's National Quidditch Team. And Ginny was stuck with Molly at Zahra's Linens, where she had been digging through sale bins for new curtains.

Molly finally let go of Ginny's hand to move a pile of towels in the bins, and Ginny used the opportunity to step out of Molly's reach. A black cat was sleeping in the shade a couple feet away from the sale bins, and it yawned and looked up as she walked over.

"Hello kitty. I bet you've been having a nice day. Wandering around the market wherever you want, and curling up to sleep when you're tired." Ginny said, as she reached out a hand.

The cat didn't respond to anything she said, but it stretched up to rub against her hand. She stroked its back gently, and the cat lay back down, purring.

"You probably have a couple of brothers or sisters somewhere, but they don't seem to be following you around all the time. Mine weren't bad last year, but as soon as I got out of the hospital wing, they started following me around. I know they care about me, but it would be nice if they trusted me to take care of myself. I've been reading a really good defense book, and I'm at least part of the way through the second year curriculum. I started reading the other textbooks straight through, since they kept on assuming that I understood things I'd never seen before when I was only reading the bits and pieces that the defense textbook talked about. I wonder why they don't just "

Suddenly, someone jerked her hand away from the cat.

"GINNY! WHAT ON EARTH WERE YOU THINKING! HAVEN'T YOU LEARNED NOT TO TOUCH THINGS YOU DON'T KNOW!" Ron bellowed at her.

"RONALD WEASLEY! What on earth are you yelling at Ginny for!" Her mother snapped, having finally looked up from the sale bins.

"She was petting a strange cat! Who knows what sort of curses might have been on it!"

"Ronald, yelling at your sister and grabbing her is not appropriate behavior for the middle of the street. I know that you're worried she'll get hurt, and I'll make sure she stays next to me the entire time. Now come along, Bill was going to take us up to the Valley of the Kings and show us the first tomb he worked on." With that, Molly grabbed Ginny's hand, and set out to round up the rest of her boys.


	3. A Celebration

A Note to the Reader: I'd like to give a huge thank-you to Ang, who wrote my very first review! It's the first review I've ever gotten (not entirely surprising, since this is the first story I've written), and I want to thank her for being very nice and supportive.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters used in this story; they belong to J.K. Rowling and whomever she has chosen to assign those rights to.

Summary: After dealing with Tom Riddle in her first year, Ginerva Weasley realized that she needed to learn how to protect herself.

* * *

_The Path from Darkness to Fire_

Chapter 3: A Celebration

* * *

_Happy birthday to you,  
Happy birthday to you,  
Happy birthday dear Ginny,  
Happy birthday to you._

Ginny's entire family sang, gathered around the little table in Bill's flat. Well, Fred and George might have sung "ninny" instead of "Ginny", but it was hard to tell with eight people, two of which had the same voice.

"Hurry up"  
"and blow out the candles!"  
"Don't forget"  
"Ron hates spiders!"

That was definitely one of the twins. After the incident in the bazaar, the twins were only hovering around her part of the time. The rest of the time, they hovered over Ron, reminding him not to touch anything which might be cursed. In the past week, Ron had yelled at them for it at least twice a day.

"Ginny! The cake's about to burn!"

What does a twelve year old girl wish for? A doll? A pony? A boyfriend?

_ I wish that Tom Riddle could never, ever touch me again. _

It was a hopelessly idealistic wish. Tom Riddle had already touched her, and it had changed everything. Still, she was a witch, and a fairly powerful one at that. Her magic wasn't nearly enough to destroy Voldemort's spirit, wherever it was lurking. But it was certainly powerful enough to affect her mind just a little bit, re-enforcing the decision she'd already made, to learn as much as she could, to protect herself. When Ginny leaned over and blew out all 12 candles, it did just that.

Her mother started cutting the cake, and handed the first piece to Ginny. It was a rich chocolate cake, with vanilla frosting , and "Happy Birthday Ginny" in red and gold sparkling letters. After the cake was finished, it was time for presents.

"Here you go Ginny, your father and I thought you would like it." Molly said, handing over a small box, wrapped in a white paper with purple and pink flowers. Ginny opened it eagerly, revealing a bracelet of gold lions, separated by sparkling red crystals. "It's lovely! I can't wait to show everyone when I get back to school!" Ginny exclaimed, as she took the bracelet out of the box and put it on her wrist.

"This one's from me and Charlie" Bill said, as he handed her another small box, this time covered in cream-colored paper, which had hawks, scarabs, and cats on it. "The paper's got a traditional Egyptian design on it." Ginny was careful not to tear the paper as she opened the present. The box had a black dragon's tooth suspended on a gold chain in it.

"Charlie went to China for a couple of weeks last winter, to help them after a Chinese Fireball refused to take care of her babies. The tooth's from one of the babies, and the runes in the setting are ancient protective symbols."

"It's gorgeous! I can't believe you went to all this trouble for me." Ginny responded, as she lifted the necklace out of the box. In the light, the black tooth had a deep red undertone, and the chain sparkled. Ginny put it around her neck, and set the paper to one side.

"I'm afraid mine's a bit more practical. You're growing up now, and it's important that you know how to deal with the people you meet." With this, Percy handed her what appeared to be a large book, wrapped in red and gold striped paper. Ginny unwrapped it, revealing a brown book with a silver title. "The Young Witch's Guide to Society" she read aloud. "Thanks, Percy. I'm sure it will be very useful." Perhaps as a paperweight, a doorstop, or a heavy blunt object to throw at her brothers when they walked into her room without knocking.

"Ours is also a bit practical"  
"but we made sure it was pretty, too."

The twins handed over a medium sized box, wrapped in shiny pink paper with large, turquoise stars. Ginny tore the paper off, and tossed it behind her, where she wouldn't have to look at it. The box was wooden, with a hawk surrounded by two Sphinxes on the cover, and scarabs on the sides.

"We bought it in""the little store in the bazaar."  
"It's charmed so that nobody"  
"except the owner"  
"can open it. Unfortunately"  
"it only works for girls."  
"We figured you should have"  
"something that even we"  
"couldn't get it to. And we were impressed"  
"when we couldn't figure out the charms."  
"The instructions are taped"  
"to the bottom of the box."

"Thank you. I like the design on the lid. I'll read through the instructions later." Ginny said, making a mental note to check their claim that they couldn't get into the box.

"Well Ron, you're the only one left." Molly said, nudging Ron towards Ginny. Ron held out a lumpy package, which was covered in an orange and red paper, and at least ten feet of tape. When she finally got the paper off, Ginny was left holding what seemed to be a large orange piece of fabric, with little red and yellow flowers on it. "I thought you'd like a new blanket for your bed, Ginny."

"Thanks, Ron." The fabric wasn't actually that bad. Perhaps the color could accidentally get changed by one of the twins pranks. A nice, light blue or purple would go well with Ginny's sheets.

"Well, we should head back to the hotel and get some sleep. We've got lots to do tomorrow, and we should get an early start. Percy, would you be a dear and help Ginny with her presents?"

"Of course, Mum." Percy responded, gathering up all the boxes. The Weasleys walked back to the hotel, and Ginny tossed the book from Percy in the bottom of her trunk. Her new blanket was used to wrap up the box from the twins so it wouldn't get scratched. She took her new jewelry off and put it on the bedside table before getting into bed, and falling asleep. In her dream, she was fighting dark wizards off using spells she learned from some books which had appeared in her trunk one night.


	4. A Journey

A Note to the Reader: Well, I think I warned you that updates would be . . . sporadic. Part of the problem is I have way too many ideas for what I want to be doing with these characters when they're three years older, but I need to get the background written before I write myself into a corner. The other part of the problem is that I'm trying to stay true to the books as much as possible, while showing events from a different point of view. I reserve the right to mangle HBP beyond recognition.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters used in this story; they belong to J.K. Rowling and whomever she has chosen to assign those rights to.

Summary: After dealing with Tom Riddle in her first year, Ginerva Weasley realized that she needed to learn how to protect herself.

* * *

The Path from Darkness to Fire 

Chapter 4: A Journey

* * *

_Thud_. _Thud_. Thud. Ginny's trunk felt even heavier that it had in previous years. She only had three extra books with her: The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 3, Intermediate Transfiguration, and The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4. Perhaps the problem wasn't actually the weight of her trunk, but staying awake every night after the rest of the house had gone to sleep, reading over all of the books. Based on Charlie's notes in the margins, she'd finished the second year material two days before the family had flooed over to Diagon Alley.

She'd hoped to be a bit further along by now, but Hermione had seen her reading about Animagi in the beginning of Intermediate Transfiguration, and proceeded to spend the next several hours gushing about how hard it was, and other famous witches and wizards who had managed the transformation, and something about hair color helping with the transformation. At that point, Ginny had just started repacking her trunk. Hermione had finally shut up just after midnight, promising to give Ginny all her notes from last year's class. Ginny rolled her eyes as that part crossed her mind again. She'd only finished Beginning Transfiguration last week, but she had actually understood it perfectly well, and didn't need notes which probably had three pages of useless information copied out of some book in the library for every page that might be relevant to the topic.

_Thud_. Ginny finished dragging her trunk down the stairs, and began maneuvering it over towards the Leaky Cauldron's door. Fortunately, one of the Ministry workers came over and took the trunk from her, levitating it out the door and into the trunk of the Ministry cars, which had come to take Harry Potter (and accompanying friends) to the train station.

The trip to the station was as uneventful as any time spent in the backseat of a car with Fred and George could be. Molly was keeping a close eye on them, and they seemed to be too busy planning for Welcome Feast to set off dungbombs in the Ministry car. For once, the Weasley family didn't have to run across the station and onto the train; instead, Ginny walked through the wall to Platform 9 ¾ with Percy, although he abandoned her as soon as he spotted Penelope. Ginny took a couple of steps towards the train, but Ron grabbed her arm saying, "C'mon Ginny, you shouldn't wander off by yourself. I'll help you get your trunk onto the train."

Ginny sighed quietly, and then followed Ron onto the train. The trunks were all loaded into the carriage at the end, although Ginny pulled out her bookbag and the books she was currently reading for the train ride. They ended up standing in the corridor, waiting for Harry to finish talking to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and get on the train. He scrambled on at the last minute, and said something to Ron that Ginny couldn't hear over the train's whistle.

"Go away, Ginny." Ron ordered.

"Oh, that's nice." Ginny snapped back, but she took advantage of this opportunity to get away from Ron. As she walked down the corridor looking for an empty compartment, she muttered under her breath "I swear, I'll just do my best to avoid speaking to Ron this year. I can take care of myself, or at least I could if he hadn't kept me standing in the corridor until all the compartments filled up." Ginny finally found Colin's compartment, which had an empty bench, and managed to settle down with her book after Colin introduced her to Dennis.

Hours passed, and Ginny only stopped reading when the food cart came by. She hadn't actually noticed when the witch opened the compartment door, but Colin poked her on the shoulder to let her know. Suddenly, Ginny was almost knocked off the bench as the train stopped with a jolt.

"Colin? Are we there already?" she asked.

"I don't think so. The prefects haven't come by to tell us to change."

There was an uncertain look on Colin's face, and then the lights on the train went out and their compartment was plunged into darkness. Ginny reached into her pocket to get her wand, but just as she pulled it out the temperature in the compartment dropped.

She heard a voice off in the distance whispering. _"Master back . . so hungry . . . rend . . . bite . . . . new mistress . . . obey . . . blood . . . kill . . ."_

She was standing as a huge scaly body rushed past, screaming at her body to run away. Instead her hand reached out and touched smooth, cold scales.

Her hands were coated in blood as they clutched the knife. Specks of blood had been scattered across her arms, blending in with the freckles.

She lay on a cold, hard floor, barely able to keep her eyes open, as energy poured out of her and laughter echoed in her head. The last of her energy slipped away and she fell into darkness.

Then the cold floor faded into a seat cushion, and the laughter transformed into whimpers from the other side of the compartment.

"Colin?" Her voice sounded weak, cracking in the middle of his name as she tried to pull herself together.

"Ginny? What happened?"

"I don't know. Are you alright?"

"I think so." His voice was wavering.

"I guess we should go try to get a prefect or something." Ginny offered. She tried to stand up, and realized that her wand was still in her hand.

"Lumos"

The light from Ginny's wand showed Colin and Dennis, both hunched over on the opposite bench. Ginny managed to get to her feet, and walked over to the door without stumbling.

"Will you two be alright in here while I go check for someone in the other compartments?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think so." Colin replied, and Ginny opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.


End file.
